View From The Opposition Press – Newcastle Were Excellent

Written by Dr. Ed Harrison

12:30pm Sunday, November 6th, 2016

Commented 8 times

We’ll take a look at the opposition press during this season to get some idea of how they report our games and also see what they think of what looks to be a good and improving Newcastle side we have under the very impressive Rafa Benitez.

We have looked at Walesonline.com for this week’s report from the opposition press and Cardiff City see some hope under new manager Neil Warnock that they didn’t completely collapse at times under the pressure of Newcastle yesterday.

Yoan Gouffran rifling home Newcastle’s second goal just before half time This is some of their report of yesterday’s game:

“First, the game-plan was dismantled in the opening minutes as Christian Atsu curled home from close range.”

“Then the Magpies were well on top and a sign of their sky-high confidence was Ciaran Clark striding out with the ball like a Libero of old.”

“Only months ago he was part of a crumbling Aston Villa defense.”

“Cardiff dug in, and fought their way back into the game. They looked like they could pull a goal back from a set-piece as Junior Hoilett hauled them up the field with a number of bright, surging runs.”

“Then, just before the break, they switched off. Sol Bamba came out of position and no one filled the gap. 2-0, and it looked like game over.”

“Newcastle came flying out the traps after half-time and again it looked like Cardiff could fold.”

“That they didn’t is to their credit.”

“The Bluebirds came close on three occasions before Peter Whittingham grabbed a consolation goal.”

“Yet Cardiff’s deficiencies, so obvious for the early part of the season, have clearly not been completely ironed out.”

“It was notable that in the absence of Matt Ritchie — said by many to be the star of the Newcastle show this season — Christian Atsu stepped in and delivered a first-half performance of searing pace and incision.”

“Cardiff couldn’t live with him at times and while Hoilett delivered by far his best performance of the season so far, it is an area in which the Bluebirds still can’t quite compete.”

“Newcastle’s excellence shows how far the quality at the top of the league has jumped this season, and for the most part Cardiff are simply not at that level.”

Have finally caught up with reading the comments so far from yesterday.

Just to add my two pennorth, from the match reports of Charley and Jasper, much appreciated and well done chaps.

It seems that Shelvey is missing the ‘Ginger Makalele’ (never seen him as a Pirlo clone) to do the basic stuff so he can do the clever stuff.

Is Rafa (all hail him) really doing rotation tactics? Seems to me he is picking more or less the same team every time nowadays, excepting for injuries or banned players. A lot of people got it right on Rafa (all hail him) bingo with many (including me) getting 10 out of 11 this time.

And finally on Dummett he certainly is the bane of contention on the blog, can’t see why so many keep faulting him, he’s experienced in both the EPL and the EFL and getting better all of the time. Haidara and Lazar need to to do very well to dislodge him.

@Harley: No problem, matey. The free version of 1Blocker is great, but paying in for the extra few quid unlocks some useful features.

Not sure what the best option is for Andrtoid, though the Ghostery browser is solid.

As far as PCs go – uBlock Origin all the way. It has a load of features built into it like anti-adblocking and JavaScript blocking, so it blows AdBlock Plus out of the water.

Ed really needs to sort out his ads, like. I don’t mind them if it’s unintrusive – especially on a website I’ve used for almost a decade now, it’s definitely something I want to support – but he’s using really poor lists with some very questionable ads, and it’s just disappointing more than anything else.

On Dummett I would say he’s doing an ok job at this level and I think we’ll keep him as a back up in the PL. Haidara I don’t think is good enough , flatters to deceive but a bit like Sissoko he has great pace without the natural technical skills.

This season, it also seems as if the referees want to be the stAr of the show, the man with the power and wont let anyone tell them any different, the linesman on the sjh stand side missed at least 4 offside players in the 1st half alone because he was so far off the pace ( not his fault as its difficult to keep up when your 87.) I suppose the decisions are supposed to even themselves out ofer the course of a season (no sign of that last season though) but as long as were consistently better than the opposition and can keep the gap to 3rd place at around 8-10 pts we wont care, it only becomes an issue if we become complacent and start to think the works done, i dont think Rafa will allow this to happen and will have his team prepared well for every game. Most of the upper championship sides have players capable of hurting other teams, these are the sides where homework is key, suss them out then snuff them out and we can control the games……we , on the other hand have much more threat than most of this league when on our game……we just need to keep our game level up and hope the ref and linesmen dont have other ideas

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health update

My latest bone scans and CAT scans were completed on Wednesday of this week and yesterday I met with my oncologist Dr. Dhruva to look over the results.

The stage four cancer remains stabilized and has not spread any further over the last six months.

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in early 2017 after being in remission for six years.

The cancer metastasized through the bones to different parts of the body and the treatment I am undergoing is hormone treatment.

There is no cure for stage 4 cancer but there are treatments (like Hormone treatment) that attempt to prolong life.

I am upbeat with the results and remain in awe of the doctors and nurses at the Rex Cancer Center here in Raleigh.

It's truly humbling to see how inspiring they are with their patients.

Ed Harrison

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